321 – The Culprit Is Among Us – 2

[Case Overview]

Lion Calendar 453, December XX

17th Floor, Azure Magic Tower Central Control Room

The tracking light emitted from Master’s『Mountain Goat』tracking scroll, ceased casting halfway across the Central Control Room entrance. It’s highly likely a 『Mountain Goat』, disguised, is hiding within this facility.

The site is a sealed chamber due to the Mad Mage’s grand spell, preventing anyone from entering or exiting. No traces of such activity were detected either.

There was a suspicion that the tracking light might have been targeting ‘outside’ the Central Control Room, rather than ‘inside,’ and simply vanished at the right moment. Upon consulting the Mad Mage, an external advisor, he responded:

“100% not possible. Unless that Mountain Goat b*stard is strong enough to face off against a goddess, the culprit is for sure inside this Central Control Room. Why are you writing all this down, anyway?”

The four suspects trapped at the scene are as follows:

● Melberton (3rd year / Male):

Developer of 『Melberton’s Accuracy Reduction Field』. His inventions have occasionally been seen throughout the kingdom, but it appears he suffered an economic blow due to rampant, illegal counterfeiting. Has an extravagant spending habit.

He has a history of animosity with the current Azure Tower Master. It seems the current Tower Master has a habit of destroying his magic. Even if he is not the 『Mountain Goat』 himself, we must consider the possibility he is cooperating with them due to animosity or financial motives.

● Luce (6th year / Female):

Successor of the 『Hologram』 magic from the Mad Mage. Apparently, she has a lover made of illusion magic, but that’s not important.

She’s insane. Looking at me with weird eyes. Creepy.

● Lorelei (10th year / Female):

Said to be the most frequent visitor outside of the Azure Tower’s personnel. She has ties with adventurers due to frequent collaborations, making it plausible she had contact with someone outside.

According to the Mad Mage, she had been witnessed in the previous Imperial Capital using a black magic that “turns humans into detection devices (commonly known as 『Big Brother』).” She was suspected of providing the fundamental structure of the spell.

At the time, it was concluded that it was a scheme by a black magician to deliberately frame her, and she was cleared of suspicion, but the possibility of high-level deception must also be considered.

Her signature technique is 『Puppet』, and she is said to harbor a twisted desire to switch bodies with her disabled younger brother. She needs to be watched closely.

● Charlie (15 years / Male):

An individual who lived in the “Former Tower” for about two years before the current Tower Lord, Yuna Yurensto Violet Iris, ascended to her position. It’s highly likely that he encountered or had contact with the former Tower Lord and 『The Goat』.

Within the current Tower, he holds a position close to an elder, wielding considerable authority in the absence of the Tower Lord. This means he can interfere with various parts of the Violet Tower.

Currently, the most likely candidate for 『The Goat』. Must be careful.

–

[Question: What is the Central Control Room?]

The mad mage, legs crossed, spoke.

“My seniors, and my juniors. The Tower’s Central Control Room is an important place. One is understandable, but four seems a bit excessive. I’d like to ask why you were here…”

“Wait. What role does the Central Control Room play, and why is it important?”

“Right, I guess I should explain it to you, kid. In our Tower’s control room, you can control the external interception system, heating and cooling, and other things. It’s linked to the entire Tower and its mana lines.”

Mana lines. Linked to the entire Tower.

“So, the moment you seize this place… it practically means you can control the Violet Tower?”

“Up to the 17th floor. The floors above are the living spaces of Yuna, the Tower Lord, and myself, so they’re operated separately.”

“Are there any other particularities?”

“There is. When we were attacked by the shadow familiars, the Tower’s lights went out, right? It was probably controlled from the control room. The person who touched this panel is the most suspicious.”

At the mad mage’s words, the suspects exchanged glances amongst themselves. All of them were uneasy, their hands sweating, their eyes flickering, clearly feeling anxious.

But it wasn’t the anxiety of a culprit about to be exposed, rather…

“I’m so curious about who it is, aren’t you?”

Shimmering.

Though he spoke with an affected, bright, and cheerful tone, friendly even.

That man, dissolving and reforming in a shifting, pitch-black, amorphous shape, staring with ominous, bloodshot eyes.

He was surely more terrifying than my trembling could betray.

[Interrogation: Reason for visiting Central Control? (Melberton)]

Melberton testified with his gaze fixed on the floor. He was a man who looked every bit the research mage, with his thick glasses and disheveled hair.

“It was, uh, duty, duty shift. You know? Someone has to be in Central Control… and it just so happened to be me today.”

“Duty shift, you say. What does the duty shift entail?”

“Yes, yes. So… normally it’s heating and cooling control. If someone’s cold, I raise the temperature, if someone’s hot, I lower it. The main job is monitoring. If there’s a dangerous situation, like someone blowing something up during an experiment, I have to sound the alarm across the whole tower… but isn’t it a little odd that a kid is speaking informally to me, no, nevermind.”

Melberton respected my authority as a 『Hypno-Detective』. Or perhaps he was intimidated by the mad mage glaring redly behind me.

I felt a sudden unease and glanced back. Come to think of it, the mad mage might not be too keen on a 『Hypno-Detective』 getting involved.

Come to think of it, why did I suddenly start deducing…?

“……..”

*Tap.* Something like the mad mage’s hand tapped my back. I could feel the intention for me to continue, now. Is my line of reasoning in line with his intentions, or is he preparing something else altogether…?

For now, I’ll continue the interrogation.

“Then why didn’t the alarm go off? I didn’t hear any alarms as we ascended the tower.”

“…Huh?”

“When I and the mad mage entered this tower, he cast a grand spell to seal the tower. Isn’t that a ‘dangerous situation that should trigger an alarm across the whole tower’?”

“That was… it was clearly the mad mage, um… your senior’s doing. I didn’t think it was necessary to sound the alarm.”

He didn’t think it was necessary.

Suspicious. But not enough to dwell on, I figured, and moved on to the next question. It could very well be what it seemed.

[Interrogation: Reason for visiting the Central Control Room? (Charlie, Lorelei)]

“Then, what about the others? Melberton was on duty, but it doesn’t seem the same for the rest.”

“I’ll testify first. I’m Lorelei, a 10-year veteran top-tier mage. I 『received a call』. It said there was a problem with the Central Control Room, they needed urgent help. Any capable mage, get up to the control room, fast.”

“Uh, yeah, me too. I’m Charlie, 15 years in, I got a similar call and came to the control room. I was probably first… and not long after that, Lorelei came.”

A call from the control room?

I stared at Melberton. The only people who could broadcast announcements across the entire tower were the people in the Central Control Room. But he looked genuinely bewildered, as if it were impossible.

“…Wait, wait a minute, Lorelei-sunbae! You received a call? I never sent a message to anyone!”

“What? I’m sorry, Melberton-hubae, but I did get one. If it wasn’t you, then who sent it?”

“Well, I don’t know, but it definitely wasn’t me!”

The testimonies conflicted. Melberton claimed he didn’t send a message, but Lorelei and Charlie gathered in the control room because of a message. Then, who sent that message?

If the 『Goat』 was among the four of us, he needed to either call people together or / blend into a crowd to avoid being found out.

So this part is significant. It could be seen as the 『Goat』’s scheme….

“Okay, I understand. Then, finally, you──”

“Hah, hah, hah…”

“Th-there, can, can you interrogate that woman instead? I’m begging you, crazy mage…!!”

I retreated.

[Interrogation: Reason for visiting the Central Control Room? (Luce)]

I hid behind the crazy mage and switched to the position of recorder. He spoke in a cheerful, friendly tone.

“Our shota-butler enthusiast, how have you been?”

“Of course. Me and my darling were living it up, happily ever after, you know?♥”

“Good to see. Yeah, you gotta have that level of affection to unlock the depths of 『Hologram』… I made a lot of new outfit samples this time around, you know? I’ll share them after work.”

“I’ve been trying a lot of things, too. To reach the ideal of a Bunny Boy, the necktie—”

The story’s going off on a tangent, you crazy mage.

Someone thumped my back, and the crazy mage sprouted a mouth on their back, whispering. If Luce was 『Capricorn』 I wouldn’t be seeing her anymore, so this much of a goodbye is okay, right? They said.

With all our seniors and juniors on the suspect list, the crazy mage must be feeling uneasy too, huh?

“Why did you come up to the Central Control Room?”

“Well, I got a message, too…ugh.”

Lurch.

Luce suddenly lurched like she was having a dizzy spell. A blank look crossed her face and a stream of blood flowed down from her nose.

The crazy mage spoke calmly.

“….oh, uh.”

“No lies. I’m looking into the deepest parts of you right now. The moment you intentionally utter a lie, I will give you a 『Punishment』. You understand?”

“…Y-yes, yes. I, I got it. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you’d be so angry. I didn’t.”

Is he a lie detector? It seems you can’t lie in front of the crazy mage.

But the suspects are all illusion mages. It’s not hard for them to believe their own lies through self-hypnosis. So, if we assume they’re only speaking absolute truth… we’ll fall into a trap.

Fortunately, the crazy mage will catch those self-hypnosis attempts, too.

So, the lies I need to be wary of are 『the self-hypnosis that happened before the crazy mage met the suspects』.

Luce confessed willingly.

“I lied because I thought you’d suspect me if I said this. The truth is, I… just went in by chance. Senior Charlie and Senior Loray went in, so I was wondering if something happened. That’s why.”

“Good. That’s how you should act, honest. At least for today.”

“……I’ll keep that in mind.”

The crazy mage finished questioning Luce and came back to relieve me.

[Interrogation: What happened in the Central Control Room?]

Lorelei and Charlie took turns giving their statements.

“When I entered the Central Control Room, Melberton was doing push-ups and Senior Charlie was manipulating the console.”

“That’s right. I had to see what part was malfunctioning.”

“I joined Senior Charlie and checked the system too. But even after a thorough scan, there was nothing wrong. So, we were thinking maybe Melberton sent the message by mistake when Junior Luce came in.”

“And as soon as Luce came in, the door vanished.”

At that point, the crazy mage’s grand magic activated, and the Central Control Room was completely isolated. What did the four suspects do in that closed room?

“Senior Charlie thought it was an external attack. So he tried to manipulate the system panel to respond. But I thought it was our junior’s doing, so I stopped Senior Charlie.”

Stopped him?

“What reason would our junior have to attack the magic tower? In the end, it would be for the good of the tower, so I thought we shouldn’t interfere.”

“Melberton, I’d like to speak. I, I thought that made sense. I wasn’t slacking off while on duty, but Senior Lorelei’s words were reasonable, so I thought it was okay not to sound the alarm……”

[1st Chronological Order]

So, based on the statements so far, the timeline is as follows.

● Melberton is on duty in the Central Control Room.

● Charlie receives a message about an anomaly in the Central Control Room and enters the room.

● Lorelei, who received the same message, enters the Central Control Room as well.

● Luce sees the two entering the control room and, out of curiosity, follows them in.

● A crazed mage activates “Succession of Answers,” turning the scene into a locked room.

● The crazed mage is attacked by the shadow familiar of “The Goat.” At this point, the purple magic tower’s lights went out.

● The crazed mage is attacked by the tower’s staff, mind-controlled by “The Goat.” He swiftly subdued them alongside the assassin.

● The crazed mage reaches the central control room.

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

The “Hypnotic Detective” guidebook left to me by my mentor contains deep wisdom for solving cases and uncovering villains. Thanks to this precious book, I’ve been able to clumsily carry on the “Hypnotic Detective” work.

Chapter 52, “The Deduction Chapter,” dictates that a single, piercing question will become a lamp illuminating the darkness.

The crazed mage and I simultaneously questioned the suspects.

“Of the four people who were in the central control room, who turned off the tower’s lights?”

“Colleagues, seniors, when I was attacked by the shadow familiar… who turned off the tower lights, raise your hand.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

But no one raised their hand.